INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES ON CUSTOMER BEHAVIOURAL INTENTIONS IN THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

Abstract

This study concerns customer engagement and customer behavioural intentions in the hospitality sector/industry in south-south Nigeria. Operators in the hospitality industry are now required to understand and apply key customer engagement concepts in the design and management of service experiences. Consumer engagement (CE) is receiving increasing attention, yet the current literatures are inconsistent in its dimensionality. Though many studies have been conducted on customer engagement in the hospitality sector, not much to the knowledge of the researcher has been done in the Nigerian setting especially in the oil rich south-south states of the country. The main objective of this study is to ascertain how the antecedents of CE influence the behavioural intentions of the customers. To achieve this objective, survey research was conducted with a statistically determined sample 660 respondents out of which 435 returned valid and usable questionnaire. The major instrument for data collection was questionnaire and data collected were analysed with partial least squares-structural equations modelling (PLS-SEM) with the aid of WarpPLS version 6.0. The findings show that the five antecedents of customer engagement converged into the first-order higher abstract construct of customer engagement. The results further show that the CE dimensions have statistically significant impact on the customer behavioural intentions. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn, recommendations and implications were discussed, and limitations and areas for further research were discussed.